Day 84: Chocolate Banana Muffins – Not my best effort, but don’t blame the recipe

I’m still kind of basking in the glory of my successful Easter Basket project! I was so happy with how my little card and bow turned out last night that it was hard to move on and think about what to do today. I finally started looking for a project this afternoon – something that wouldn’t require going shopping because I know I’ll be tired after bell choir and have just been to the store one too many times recently. Also, it’s a big night of TV so I will be in a big hurry to get home.

I found this recipe at a site called Shad and Lizzie. I actually went to the site originally to look at her cute idea for felt flower headbands for the baby. However, it looks like I should order some pre-made elastic bands to do these and I definitely won’t have those by tonight. I started looking thru her recipes (all pretty kid-friendly) and found these chocolate banana muffins. These should make Big Daddio happy and I’m pretty sure that I have everything at home already. Here’s the link: http://shadandlizzie.blogspot.com/search/label/recipes

What I really need is a cleanup day around my house! I have remnants of various projects scattered all around and it’s starting to get out of control. My daughter Brooke was home last weekend and she said I’ll need next year to just get everything cleaned up from my projects this year. Rats – because I was thinking that next year would be my “travel and have fun with the granddaughter year”. I guess I’d better start getting things cleaned up in my spare time – just not sure when that will be!

Anyway, this recipe looked easy and good. I was hoping to take these with me when I visit my parents this weekend for Easter. I’d like to give them something they can keep in the freezer and pull out for a little snack every now and then. Unfortunately, these didn’t turn out all that good. I will explain that in a minute.

All the ingredients – things looked good at this point

Everything went into the processor for mixing. Things were going along nicely until I got to the end of the recipe and noticed that I was supposed to chop the chocolate before adding to the batter. Well, by this point I was tired and decided that since everything was already in the food processor I could just throw the pieces of dark chocolate in with everything else and chop it up that way.

That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea as I’m writing it down. Unfortunately, the chocolate didn’t chop up – it just kind of congealed with the batter and formed a gloppy mess with large pieces of unchopped chocolate. Even though it looked pretty doubtful, I decided to go ahead and bake the muffins. What’s the worst that could happen? Haha – that’s my motto in life and I’m sticking to it.

The batter just looks kind of unattractive

Well, they came out of the oven looking pretty unappealing. They sat sadly on the kitchen counter – not even Big Daddio would go near them.

Finally I gave them a try. Here’s the thing. Part of the problem was definitely with my technique, no question about that. I think the other thing is that they’re billed as “healthy” and I just don’t think they were sweet enough for my taste. They might appeal to someone who really likes healthy stuff – they don’t have sugar and they’re made with whole wheat flour. So I don’t want to discourage anyone who is into healthy recipes. If anyone tries them (correctly) and likes them, please let me know.

As I always say, what’s the worst that could happen? In this case, I have a bunch of muffins that just might not get eaten. Oh, well!